TankBud

Gigantea carpet anemone

Stichodactyla gigantea

Also known as Giant Carpet Anemone, Gigantea Anemone

SaltwaterAnemone

Gigantea carpet anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea)
Michael arvedlund at da.wikipedia · Public domain

Care at a glance

Temperature
75–81°F
24–27°C
pH
8.1–8.4
Adult size
19.7 in
50 cm
Minimum tank
53 gal
200 L
Temperament
Aggressive
Social behavior
Solitary
Tankmates
With caution
Swim level
Bottom
Diet
Photosynthetic
Difficulty
Difficult
Breeding
No record
Rarity
Rare
Reef safe
Reef safe with caution
Family
Stichodactylidae
Origin
Indo-West Pacific reefs

Overview

The Gigantea carpet anemone is a carpet anemone for the sand bed of a large, mature reef. It is an expert-only animal.

Did you know

The Gigantea carpet anemone is smaller than several other carpet anemones in the hobby, despite its name. The giant refers to its reputation rather than its size. It is one of the hardest anemones to keep alive for more than a few years, even with expert care.

Caring for the Gigantea carpet anemone

Give the Gigantea carpet anemone very intense reef lighting and strong flow. It gets much of its energy from symbiotic zooxanthellae, which need unusually high light to stay healthy. It is widely regarded as needing the brightest light of any anemone commonly kept. It moves across the sand on its own schedule, so keep pump intakes guarded.

Keep the water chemistry rock stable, at 75 to 81°F (24 to 27°C) and a pH of 8.1 to 8.4. Survival rates are low outside a large, extremely well equipped and established reef tank. It is not an anemone to buy on impulse.

Add it only to a tank of at least 53 gal (200 L) that can already support demanding SPS corals. It is notably slow to recover from shipping stress or a bacterial infection picked up in transit. Acclimate it slowly.

Once it settles, feed it chopped fish or shrimp with a target feeder. It is aggressive and stings hard, and it can capture small fish or shrimp that get too close. Isolate it from corals and clams.

Clark's and pink skunk clownfish will host in it, along with a few other regional Amphiprion species. It reproduces both sexually and asexually by fission.

Good to know

Stichodactyla gigantea is a carpet anemone in the family Stichodactylidae. Like its carpet relatives, it carries a potent sting, delivered through long, adhesive tentacles.

In the wild

The Gigantea carpet anemone lives on shallow, current-swept sand and rubble flats across the Indo-West Pacific. It anchors its foot in a hole and spreads a wide, sticky oral disc with long, pointed tentacles across the surface. It is a classic host there for true percula and ocellaris clownfish.

Symbiotic relationships

Clownfish and their host anemones

A clownfish lives inside an anemone that stings and eats other fish its size. Its mucus coat keeps the anemone's stinging cells from firing, and a new fish builds that protection up over hours of brief touches. The fish gets a refuge no predator will follow it into and a nest site at the anemone's base. The anemone gets a guard that drives off the butterflyfish that would graze its tentacles, a steady supply of nitrogen from the fish's waste, and water movement at night, when the fish fans its fins among the tentacles and the anemone takes up more oxygen. Only ten anemone species host clownfish in the wild, and each clownfish species uses its own short list of them.

Captive-bred clownfish have never seen an anemone and do not need one; they settle for a coral, a powerhead or a corner of the tank. If you want the pairing, the anemone is the harder animal by far and goes in first, into a mature tank with strong light and stable water, at the tank size its own profile lists. The bubble tip anemone is the hardy host, and the one most clownfish accept in captivity even when it is not a natural host, so a clownfish profile lists it as the usual tank host where that is the case. The sebae, magnificent and carpet anemones are marked difficult, and the carpets eat fish. Expect a paired clownfish to defend its anemone against everything else in the tank.

Shrimp and crabs that live in anemones

Several small crustaceans live where almost nothing else can: among the tentacles of an anemone. Sexy shrimp perch in the tentacles in a cluster, bobbing their tails in the display that named them. The white-spot anemone shrimp is near transparent apart from its spots and lives on carpet anemones. The porcelain anemone crab sits at the anemone's edge and filters plankton from the water with two fan-like arms. Pederson's cleaner shrimp lives in the Caribbean corkscrew anemone and cleans fish from there. In every case the anemone is a bodyguard: its sting keeps off the small fish that would eat the shrimp. The anemone gains little, and the white-spot shrimp will nibble its host's tentacles when it is hungry.

Give each of them its anemone. Sexy shrimp take a rock flower anemone, a bubble tip or a carpet. The white-spot shrimp and the porcelain crab want a carpet anemone or a long tentacle anemone, both of which need a mature tank at the tank size their profiles list. Pederson's shrimp wants a corkscrew anemone or a condy. Without a host they perch on a coral or hide in the rock and are picked off by any fish that eats shrimp, so they suit a peaceful nano reef. A clownfish will evict them from an anemone it has claimed.

Every symbiotic relationship in the catalog

Common questions

What size tank does a Gigantea carpet anemone need?

A Gigantea carpet anemone needs at least 53 gal (200 L).

What temperature and pH does a Gigantea carpet anemone need?

A Gigantea carpet anemone is comfortable at 75–81°F (24–27°C) with a pH of 8.1–8.4.

What does a Gigantea carpet anemone eat?

A Gigantea carpet anemone gets much of its energy from symbiotic zooxanthellae, which need intense light. Once it settles, feed it chopped fish or shrimp with a target feeder.

How big does a Gigantea carpet anemone get?

An adult Gigantea carpet anemone reaches about 19.7 in (50 cm).

How does a Gigantea carpet anemone breed?

A Gigantea carpet anemone reproduces both sexually and asexually, by splitting in two.

Related species